Gujarat police detains filmmaker Avinash Das for insulting national flag, Amit Shah

Das, known for the critically acclaimed movie 'Anaarkali of Aarah', for anticipatory bail, which was rejected

A team of Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) officials, on Tuesday, picked up filmmaker Avinash Das from Mumbai in a criminal case for his social media posts, which allegedly insult the national flag and tarnish the reputation of union home minister Amit Shah.

The Gujarat high court, while rejecting his anticipatory bail earlier, had remarked that granting him relief would open the possibility of “a large magnitude of people, who have immense respect for the National Flag, being anguished.”

“We have detained him from Mumbai and (are) bringing him to Ahmedabad,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCB) Chaitanya Mandlik told DH, while confirming the news. Das is likely to be brought to the DCB office here late on Tuesday night, and be officially declared as arrested.

Das, known for the critically acclaimed movie Anaarkali of Aarah, had petitioned first sessions, and later high court for anticipatory bail, where they were rejected.

In his petition to the Gujarat High Court for an anticipatory bail, Das had argued that section 469 was a bailable offence. His lawyer defending Das from the charge of Section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, said Das had only “circulated a link along with the photographs/paintings by a painter ... and that he had no intention whatsoever to have insulted the National Flag by circulating the said painting.”

The lawyer also argued that “the painting had been circulated for its aesthetic value” and that Das “did not have any other intention whatsoever in circulating the same.” In the high court order, Das also submitted that he was “ready to submit an unconditional apology for the mistake he has committed.”

The High Court, while noting that Das didn’t have criminal antecedent and that the police did not have any apprehension that he might escape justice, said: “The impact and fall out of grant of anticipatory bail is also required to be considered by this Court in as much as since the allegation against the applicant is of having insulted or caused indignity to the Indian National Flag. There is a very real possibility of a large magnitude of people, who have immense respect for the National Flag, being anguished by release of the present applicant.”

On May 14, the DCB had booked Das for offences punishable under Section 469 of Indian Penal Code (forgery for the purpose of harming reputation), section 67 of Information and Technology Act and Section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act.

The FIR was filed based on a complaint by police sub-inspector K P Patel, who is stationed with the wireless service branch of DCB. According to court documents, on March 17, Patel found that Das had posted a picture on his Facebook and Instagram accounts of a woman wearing the national flag.

On May 8, Das is said to have uploaded another picture showing controversial IAS officer Puja Singhal “whispering something” to union home minister Amit Shah. The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Singhal in a money laundering case.

Das is alleged to have written the caption: “It is a picture of few days back when the Crores of amount was recovered from the house of Puja Singhal.”

However, the court document said that “upon verifying the same by the complainant, it was found that the said picture is of the year 2017, when the Home Minister had visited the state of Jharkhand.”

The sessions court, while rejecting his anticipatory bail, had observed: “It appears that with a view to damage the reputation and dignity of Nation the applicant-accused Avinash Das uploaded a picture of a woman wearing national flag.” According to the court’s observation, as the woman in the photo was nude underneath, Das had “insulted Indian culture”. The court further observed that he wanted to evoke “feeling of hatred amongst the people of the country” and that by uploading this photograph on Instagram and Facebook he showed his “mental perverseness”.

On Das’s post of Amit Shah and Singhal in a photo, the court remarked: “It is important to note that the photograph of IAS officer with Home Minister of country was of long back, in spite of he has twitted (sic) the same on social media after the sizable amount of currency note had been found from IAS Puja Singhal, therefore, the applicant-accused having knowledge that it was not recently even-though he had tweeted (sic) on social media with a view to tarnish the image of Hon’ble Home Minister.”